This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed human.

Hey, welcome to stuff to blow your mind.

It's Saturday.

Fault episode coming at you.

Pretend play part four.

It's that simple.

This was part four of five, and it originally published 121, 2025.

Let's have it.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind.

My name is Robert Lamb.

And I am Joe McCormick, and today we return with the fourth installment in our discussion of pretend play, play that involves non-literal action and understanding.

So when I pretend my fingers are worms crawling up the side of the

couch, that's going on in our house this week, by the way, fingers are worms. Or when I pretend a

cardboard box becomes the castle gray skull, or when I change the diaper on a stuffed

velociraptor, or if I go on adventures in the backyard with an imaginary friend,

these are all forms of pretend play, play that takes place within a pretend frame

and treats anything in the world or in the situation as other than what it literally is.

Now, if you haven't heard the previous parts in the series,

I think this is one where we really would recommend listening in order.

We're going to be building on some conversations we had in previous episodes today.

...